Friday, March 3, 2017

St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis has stopped a recurring ceremony honoring a dead Confederate sailor and cut all ties to the group behind the gathering.

The Rev. Amy Richter, the church's rector for the past seven years, said these actions might have come sooner if the church's hierarchy had been aware of the event.

The event, described by participants as low-key in recent years, has been held semi-regularly by the Waddell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1608.

Members would place a wreath on the grave of Capt. James I. Waddell, the Confederate naval officer who commanded the commerce raider Shenandoah, died in Annapolis in 1886 and is buried at the church's cemetery.